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04 September 2018

It's Not Maps, But It Feels Like Progess

Quilting has been a little sporadic this summer. The latest Map challenge definitely sounds intriguing, but somehow my brain refuses to come up with any real way forward. The lightbulb is not going off. So I've decided to continue work on my open ended improv. projects for the moment and just try to be prepared for the eventuality of a map idea!

Score #5

I've had two open-ended improv. projects this summer that sort of stalled out. One is the Score #5 from Sherri Lynn Woods Improv. Handbook and the other is something that refers back to an AHIQ Playing with Scale challenge, and funnily enough, might also tie into Score #6 in Sherri's book. I just love when projects merge like that, so nice and convenient!

Score #5 has been very challenging on several different fronts. For one, I don't tend to follow directions very well so no real surprise when I immediately bogged down with the 'formula'. No problem, I just used the pictures as a guide. Yeah, well, I got it all wrong right away but decided to just forge ahead regardless.

That brought me up to the permeable borders which are a really important part of this quilt. Right off the bat I realized that my quilt was far too short for adding on the proper proportion of the would-be borders. Ugghh.. So I packed it up for a time and then much later, on a whim late one evening {the main reason there is no progress pics}, decided to tackle the quilt again. Amazing how working across the bottom, in a horizontal path, made it all seem so much more 'doable'. Something to remember in the future.

Then finally, I girded up my loins one day and pushed on with the border area. The left side went together so quickly it felt like a joke. Then the right side? Not so easy. It didn't need to be identical and in fact, like the original quilt portrayed, I didn't even want the fabrics to repeat very much. Using the floral fabric, which felt like a fantastic idea in theory, made the balancing act all the more precarious. Needless to say, that side took a whole lot longer than the other before I felt satisfied that it all sort of 'worked' and played nicely with each other.

Not having a large design wall definitely intensified my struggles. Not being able to follow directions very well for sure complicated things, gave me obstacles to overcome in the piecing and 'flow'. Working in random times and not keeping on top of it interrupted the flow too. I'm actually sort of surprised this is now a completed quilt top. Yay for the determined quilter! And yes, I have straightened and neatened this quilt top since taking pictures. Not squared it, no, that may be impossible--but tidied it for sure. Now it's on to the other one still in the works. Can't be giving up on the improv.!

Thanks guys! This score definitely was harder than it looked, at least for me. I just think these sorts of challenges are good for long term results and yes, the ongoing learning curve. When things start to get too 'easy' then I tend to get worried that I'm just coasting.:)